2014-02-13 - Russians, Snow, and Mafia Goons
Snow, snow, everywhere, and how the city did shrink in upon itself. Schools were closed. Many businesses too. The traffic was still miserable, but that was mostly because of the ice. Natasha Romanova was testing some of her cold weather gear for the upcoming mission-- by that, it is to say, she was wearing the pieces of her cold weather clothing that did /not/ look like tactical assassin's black ops garb. So, where the gloves, boots, and the clothing she wore against her skin was meant for the Siberia trip, on the outside she wore a marshmallow-y red and black coat, zipped up, over jeans. Her red hair was tucked up, mostly, into a black and red knitted hat, though a few strands had slipped out, framing her face. Central Park was a winter wonderland, of sorts-- the snow that had melted to ice when touching the oft-used and salted city streets only piled up on the park's grassy knolls. Some of the walking paths had been somewhat cleared, but most of the park still seemed like a snowy fairy tale. It was through the unbroken pathways Natasha was treading, actually, her pale cheeks flushed with the chill, but oddly, a small smile on her lips. It was funny how a little snow could make a whole city shut down in this country. Piotr had borrowed a car from the Institute and drove down to the city to meet a gallery owner and discuss displaying some of his work, only to find that the gallery was closed and the owner was 'holing up' in Connecticut until the storm passed. So, with nothing to do until Remy's cooking party tonight Piotr went to the park to walk around and enjoy the snow. He was dressed for it, a thick parka with faux-fur lining, gloves, a knit hat, and a scarf with Cyrillic lettering promoting this year's Olympics. Like Natasha, he seems to be enjoying the peace and quiet afforded by the snow covered park. Asia is out in and about dressed very warmly, she doesn't like the cold ,but yet she's out, her body suit does keep her temprature nice and warm for now. She looking around a bit before stepping into the park, there's something she has to do it seems. A couple of teenagers rush through the park, whooping and hurling snowballs at each other. In the chaos, a few mis-aimed snowballs fling close to Natasha... and Piotr... and Asia. Gracefully, Natasha dodges the one that nearly hits her, but under the snow, the ground isn't exactly visible. Her boot catches a root and she stumbles, catching herself on the bole of one of the trees. The jostling brings down a heavy rain of snow. "Черт!" she curses in her native tongue as she's hit from above. Piotr chuckles as he sees the teenagers hurling snow. It reminded him of easier times back home with Mikail and Illyana, which it makes it all the more surprising when he hears someone curse in his native tongue. He already has a snow ball in hand and so he hurls it after the back most teen. The shot hits him in the back and makes him stagger, but he turns around and grins before he and his friend runs off. Piotr smiles back and makes his way over to Natasha and offers her a hand < Are you alright? > he asks her, his Russian has a Siberian accent. Asia is hit and she frowns. "Ah do' wanna pway right now!" she says in her mix of southern babish speak. She turns to the teenagers before darting off toward some trees. "Ah'm coming, ah'm coming hol' on!" Natasha takes Piotr's hand, nodding. "Da, < I am fine,>" she replies. "" She brushes a bit of the snow off her coat and shakes her head a bit to dislodge what has attached to her hat. Asia's voice-- a child's tone, baby talk-- draws her attention, though, and her brow furrows, looking in that direction. < No problem > Piotr replies and then his head turns towards the sound of the childish voice. "Is that your child?" he asks seeing the green-skinned girl running towards the woods. A mutant clearly, which has caught his attention. Asia pops her claws which are tiny during this time of the year barely coming out of her little mittened hands. She finds the tree she wants and starts climbing. "Where is it?" she asks outlouad as she starts scaling the large tree trunk. Piotr watches the claws come out and then glances to Natasha. "Also, if that is your child, do you happen to know a man named Logan?" There is a slight twinge, and Natasha shakes her head. "No, she is not mine--" but Nat does recognize the girl, and the look of recognition is obvious. "Asia?" she asks hesitantly. Oh she hears her name, she attaches a claw onto a branch and then hangs off upside down and blinks smiling, at Nat. "Hi Natasha!" she grins and looks at the other fellow. "Hi hi!" she says to her. "Um ah'm suppose to not be here so shhh don' tell no one, 'specially Jarvis or Unca Tony'. "Little Asia... if you are not supposed to be here, and Tony would be upset, why would you ask me to keep it from him?" Natasha replies evenly. Not that keeping things from Tony, or anyone, was a particularly difficult thing to ask of her-- lying was sort of her /thing/. Piotr nods and looks up at the girl in the tree. Fortunately, being a teammate of Rogue's has tuned his ear to the odd accents of the south. He glances to Natasha. "Clearly she is someone you know however. Do you need help getting her out of the tree and returned to this Jarvis and Uncle Tony?" Asia grins at Natasha. "Ah don't think they'd mind, it's just it's cold and they don't like it me going out when it's cold, ah don't like it when it's cold." she admits. "Ah was nappin and this tree called to me and ah had to go see wha she needed." she admits. She looks at Piotr curiously. "You gonna try to get me outta da tree?" Natasha nods-- also something she understands, going and doing things that you must. "I understand, Asia. Do not worry, Tony and Jarvis will not hear of this from me." She gives the girl a faint smile. "It will be our secret." She glances to Piotr. "I would not advise dislodging the child. She has rather protective extended family." Piotr's brow furrows and he looks puzzled. "Talking trees? This is like that movie with the little people with furry feet yes?" he asks them. Not sure if the child has actual powers or an overactive imagination. "Anyhow, it is not my place to interfere with this, just stand by in case help is needed." Asia nods to her. "Ah'm a mutant, um and trees talk to me." she explains to Piotr. ""Mah powers are way cool'r in the spriing summah." she winks and scrambles up the tree. She looks a in a bit and looks into a large knot, pulling out a small box. She blinks looking in a screams (which is unlike her) and drops the box on the ground. Not what she was expecting. The box falls to Natasha and Piotrs feet. The ex-KGB spy looks from the falling box up to Asia-- and within a split second, her decision is made. Gloved hands fly out as toned, acrobatic legs shove off from the ground; she snags a branch and swings up into the tree with the little girl. "малютка, are you hurt?" Tony would flip tables if the little girl was injured. Piotr watches as Natasha leaps smoothly into the trees, clearly impressed. Then he bends down and picks up the box. Holding onto it for now in case it will be needed. He knows better than to try and climb the tree as big as he is. Asia blinks and is on the limb. "A hand it's gotta hand!" she says trying to composer herself. She looks down at Natasha. "Ah'm okay, ah'm coming down." she says. Inside the box is a severed male hand clutching a keychain with a single key on it. Natasha's eyes narrow a bit, looking down at the box. "Bozhe moi..." she rubs her temples, then swings back down out of the tree, landing lightly, before turning and offering her arms to help Asia down. "A hand?" Piotr looks at the box. He doesn't open it though. But clearly it is important. "What is this about a hand?" Asia came down with Natahsa's help. She frowns. "That prolly someone body hurt or worse." she says. "Ah was nappin' and da tree tole me to come, she didn't trust the people." she says. "I see." Natasha deposits the little girl on the ground, looking towards the box with suspicion. "There are always people hurt or worse. This may be a matter for the local law enforcement." Not now. Not something like this. Her tone goes chilly. Piotr opens the box and peeks inside. He flinches when he sees the hand but opens it more. "It is a hand, there is also something in here with it, a key, maybe?" he looks at the two women. "So, tree told you about the hand?" Asia shakes her head no. "Ah gotta go help them, the tree asked for mah help." she says. "Ah'm a hero dats wha heroes do." she says. Asia nods to Pitor. "Uh huh the tree tole me." "The girl, Asia? She is not wrong, we are given powers to help," Piotr says. "So we can give this to police and help as we can. After all they do not talk to trees or can turn into metal." Asia nods to Natasha. "If you think thats right yer the grown ups. " "Turn into metal...?" Natasha eyes Piotr. "Ah! Colossus?" She doesn't mention where she had heard about the man. "Black Widow." She looks back to Asia. "Yes. But if you tell 'Unca Tony' about this, either, I will deny it." "Da, Colossus," Piotr nods to Widow. He looks over at Asia. "So did tree say who put the hand there?" He reaches into the box and tries to remove the key chain and the key. Asia grins at COlossus. "Oh yer at the Mansion?" she grins. "Oh you know Laura." she says happily. "Ah sometimes stay dere, oh an um Ah'm just Asia," she glances as he holds the key. It looks like a key with a #243 on it. On the back a logo of a bunny rabbit. "Da, I am from the Mansion. I know Laura, she is a very..." he pauses to find the word. "Strange girl, but a good person." He takes a look at the key. "So, there is bunny rabbit and number, does this mean anything to you?" he asks the two of them. "Hold please." Natasha pulls out her HoloID, scanning the key with it, accessing the Avengers database to try and get a location as to where the logo would be from. There is a storage company called 'Warren's Storage' the bunny a playful nod to the name. Asia smile at Colossus. "Laura is one of mah besties and Jubilee," she says to him. "And Jeanie, ah like her too." Piotr nods. "I know all of them, they are all good people, you have excellent friends," he looks to Natasha. "Did you find out anything?" Asia grins at her. "Avengers Assemble?" she says taking Natasha's hand, or at least well she'll try to take it. ASia looks excited to help. Piotr nods. "Sounds like it could not hurt to check it out," he says with a shrug. Natasha looks distinctly... uncomfortable... for a moment as the little girl slips her hand in hers. She gives her a faint smile, though, and nods. "Ah... well, that is really for Cap to call for-- but the three of us, we will Assemble just fine, da? Let us get a cab..." she says, not knowing Piotr has his own transportation. "I have a car," Piotr volunteers nodding back towards the way he came. Asia grins happily, kids have a way of sensing that sorta thing. She grins at Natasha. "So we can take his car if we can an we can check it out." she thinks a moment. "Ah can do recon." recon..where did this kid learn recon, much less know what recon is. "That sounds fine," Natasha nods, willing to follow Collosus. That the child knows that term doesn't particularly shock her-- then again, she was not much older when such things started entering her vocabulary. "Lead on, товарищ." Piotr nods and leads them to his car. He opens the back doors first and pulls some of his paintings into the back of the car and then. Moves around to the driver's seat. "Alright, let's go," he says before he gets into the front. "Also, what is the address, I will enter into GPS." Natasha gives Piotr the address, settling into the front passenger seat. Asia slides in the back seat and smiles excited to go on an adventure. She starts taking off her coat and winter stuff revealing the black skin tight body suit underneith. She's getting ready to sneak around. She hands Natasha her starkphone. "Um ah can talk to you on this thingy if you can set it to your phone thingy." Asia not so good at knowing what technology is. Piotr gets the car going following the GPS system's advice, as he navigates out of Manhatten towards Brooklyn. "I think it is called a smartphone, da?" Natasha fiddles with the Starkphone for a moment, adding the number that can call her HoloID to it and setting the phone to a fastdial mode. "There. Hold the '8' down and it will call me." She hands the StarkPhone back to Asia. "And make sure your seatbelt is on." >CLICK< "Ah got my belt on." she frowns. "Can't see too short." she says. "STupid belts." she grins, sets her phone to her belt and attaches her blue tooth to her ear. "Lets go save the day!" Piotr drives them down to Brooklyn stopping about a block from Warren Storage, so as not to make things too obvious. He parks the car and then looks to the two girls. "I am not so good at sneaking, I will stay with the car," he pulls out his own Starkphone and says. "Add me to your phones, you can call and I will come in like cavalry." Natasha updates Colossus's StarkPhone-- I guess this is one way of getting a pretty girl's number, hmm?-- and then tosses it back to him, helping Asia out of the car. She offers her hand back to the girl... just a mother and daughter out for a walk, right? At least, that will be all anyone really /should/ see, looking at the two, as they make their way towards the storage facility. Asia smiles at her. "Well least my mothers pretty, not like my real mom, my real mom is in a SHIELD jail." she says. "She's not a nice lady." she tells her. She gives Colossus a thumbs up. "You ready?" Natasha's expression tightens at the mention of a SHIELD jail, but she says nothing about it. "Let's go," she says with a nod. Asia looks at her. "We gotta get you to smile more." she says at the expressioning tightening. She says. "Let's go on our walk mommy." Oof. That's a word Natasha isn't exactly... comfortable with. Especially given recent developments. But, if she can fake being in love with heads of state or meglomaniacal supervillains... she can put a genuine, lazy-day sort of smile on her lips. She nods. "Of course, little one." And she begins walking down the sidewalk, towards the warehouse, hand in hand with Asia. Asia's not asking for love she just happy with smiles. She grins as they continue to walk. Outside the Warren Storage is a guy smoking a cigarette and, Natasha can see that he is armed with a pistol. Through the window is a large burly man in a suit, these looks like Mob thugs. The man outfront answers his cellphone. He starts speaking..looks like Russian Mobsters are at work here. Damn. Natasha was /really/ not sure this was a good idea, not with the special delivery that had interrupted their evening at the Avengers Mansion the night before*. Still. They were only human mobsters, and she was a highly trained ex-super soldier, spy, and assassin. Their odds weren't entirely good. She keeps walking. *Editor's note: Cutscene: Worse than a Cat Asia keeps walking as well, she looks around a moment and chews her lip. "Dere's one of the roof wif a rifle." she says softly still looking forward, if anyone watched it just looks like a little girl talking to her mother. "Wha we gonna do?" "Let's go around the block," Natasha murmurs to Asia. "Check out the back of the facility." Asia nods to her. "Then ice cream" she says happily as they head toward the back. The back has a fireescape, and a large roll metal door like one in a garage. The is a large black car with a driver waiting quietly. The music is playing, it russian. Natasha breathes. She could get in and out, get whatever is needed-- but she can't risk Tony's 'niece'. Bad enough she may be risking his child now and again with the upcoming Siberian mission. "Ice cream," she replies with a slight nod, taking in the areas of access, the driver-- likely a bodyguard as well as a driver--, the man on the roof with the gun. "Trees telling you anything, little one?" she asks quietly, maintaining their leisurely pace. "Um I can hear little plants inside, they are young under fake sunlight, they don't like the taste, but it's very faint, if ah was cloer maybe I can." ASia possibly talking about drugs inside. "Poor things shouldn't be growing this time of year anyways, too cold, but they are inside," Natasha's brow furrows. "A grow house?" she asks absently. "Hmm..." she glances down at Asia. "What do you want to do?" Asia looks at her. "That hand belonged to someone, good or bad no one should of lost a hand." she says. Natasha has seen much worse happen to people. Hell, she's /done/ much worse to people. She really can't say much about that, though. "Whoever it was is probably dead," she notes quietly. "And I am not sure storming this place is the right call right now." At least, not just the two of them. "But what do you wish us to do?" Asia looks at her and chews her lip. "Ah dunno. AH aint never done anything like this, Cap American and I beat up some AIM guys once but ya know that was Cap. You ever done anything like this? You think there dead, ah can't talk to the plants to find out they can't hear me." "I've... done a few things like this," Natasha says calmly. "THough I prefer the sneak in, do what must be done, and sneak out types of things to a pitched firefight." "Then go to the roof." and with that she releases herself from the her hand and darts for the car leaps into the air and lands onto of the roof with a bang. The driver comes out she sticks her tongue out and darts out down an alley way, the driver takes chase yelling in russian at her. "Bozhe moy!" Natasha exclaims as the little girl takes off down the alley. She looks towards the storage facility, then sighs, her expression flattening into an icy, emotionless mein. It's time to work. Her hand moves down to her belt, whipping out her Widow's line and slinging it at the roof, being yanked along and up. She flips onto the rooftop, startling the guard with the gun there. Her booted foot whips around, knocking the gun from his hand to clatter onto the rooftop. She follows up the kick with a solid backhand-- the stings on her wrists under her coat are heavy, metal, and mean lights out for one Russian mob goon. With him dispatched, she pauses, listening. From the roof top Nat can see Asia's progress she got the guy no problem until she pauses leaps onto the wall and pushes herself off and kicks the driver in the face, knocking him straight out. She then turns heading back to where Nat is. The roof has a sunlight, there are two more goons, playing cards. There is a bloody meatclever stuck in the wood of card playing table. The Black Widow looks down into the building below through the sunlight, glad that the kretins below did not hear her taking out their roof guard. Her eyes flit around the room, taking in the cleaver and assessing the relative strengths of the men below. There's a door on the roof-- but... wait. They are standing up. Talking to someone she can't see. Hand gestures. "" Natasha sheds the oversized coat-- it's too bulky to allow her good movement. Her wristguns flash in the sunlight. she attaches the line to her waist, shoots the other end onto the roof beside her, tosses the coat on the skylight, and dives onto the coat, shattering through the glass and tumbling face-first into the room below, firing as she spins from her wristguns. Non-lethal, of course. Just enough shock to knock out anyone she hits. One guy never had a chance he falls over soon as a dart hits him. The other stands up and opens firing at Nat he got leathal ammo though. Another guy comes in all speakign russian, mostly obsentites, luckily Asia can't speak Russian. Electrical charges fly from her stings as her line arrests her fall, hanging in midair above the poker table. She fires, taking more careful aim now-- dropping first one, then the other, not even flinching as the bullets fly toward her. Bullets? Ha. She has seen worse. She has been in worse positions before. Granted, she usually had on armor, even if it was in the form of her bodysuit, not civilian clothing. One of the bullets slices across the outside of her arm, grazing her. She doesn't even acknowledge it, as the men drop, she reaches for the control for her line, disconnecting and flipping in midair, dropping to the floor. Another guy comes out behind swinging a bat at Natasha but he doesn't make it as Asia lands ontop of him. She slams his head to the floor knocking him out. SHe jumps up smiling and. She doesn't see the shot coming from the last guy who shoots Asia right in the back, she goes tumbling forward. Behind her is the obvious leader of the group aiming now at Nat. He speaks english with a heavy russian accent. 'I will ask you once, who do you work for?" pisol finger ready to pull. The rest of the russian group is either knocked out or writhing in pain. "< I work for many people,>" Natasha replies back in her Ukrainian-tinged Russian. "" She whirls, intending to knock the gun from his hand before he can fire. Without the super soldier serum, her reflexes are good, but not that good. The bullet grazes her cheek. But she takes him down, hand on elbow, judo-flipping him forward, wristgun to the back of his head. "" Her eyes flit momentarily to Asia-- but letting him go to check on her may be a mistake. She is working-- time for other considerations later. Asia pushes herself up and grumbles. "That's gonna bruise." she gets to her feet. "Did we win?" she says headed to Nat. The Boss is taken down easily he never expected her to be so fast. He grumbles. "You better let me go, or my friends will make sure you and yours wont wake up." he struggles. "Da, we have won," Natasha replies coolly, her sting still held to the back of the man's head. "I am not afraid of your little kretins, comrade. Your threats are toothless." Asia walks over and kicks the guy in the shin. "That's for shootin' me." if she was Laura she'd of stabbed him, luckily she's not Laura. SHe grins. "What now, we call the police?" The Boss just spits. He grows silent. "Yes," Natasha says. "Call the police." She fires once into the man's skull-- he's going to wake up with a headache-- and rises to her feet, trickles of blood oozing from her upper arm and her cheek. "...this was fun, yes? Perhaps children are not so bad." Asia presses the emergency number and the police and summoned. She heads back to Nataha. "I should of watched behind me, ah was trying to save you sorry about that." she says. "It's gonna smart in the morning." Natasha nods slightly, looking around at the unconscious and barely conscious mobsters. She picks up her jacket, shaking out the glass, then slides it on, yanking her line down and rewrapping it at her belt. If Asia lets her, she scoops the girl up and swings her into a piggy-back position. "So, ice cream?" the spy asks, beginning to make her way to the door. Asia grins and hangs on. "Ooh how about cake and hot chocolate it's awfully chilly." she grins at her. "Wait, wait the key the key!" she says. "Hmm?" Natasha considers. "You want to go unlock that room?" She tugs the key out, looking for the number of the storage locker, moving towards the direction it's in. Asia nods to her. "You think the key important right?" she says. "It was with that hand." Natasha gets to the locker in question, turning the key int he lock, Asia still clinging to her back. "May as well see what this was all about, yes," she agrees. Inside is Asia's plants..strange plants that are growing human organs, there was nobodies hands it was grown. There some other strange devices here. Someone body's been experimenting. WAy beyond Russian Mobster knoweldge , perhaps they were hired thugs. Now /this/ is too much for the police. Natasha's eyes narrow, and she pulls out her holoID. "Hill? This is Romanova." A few terse words later, she gives the address of the storage facility-- SHIELD will be here in a matter of minutes. After she's done, she glances back to Asia. "SHIELD will be here soon," she says. "Whatever this is... we'll find out who is behind it, and what's causing it." She looks serious. "But yes. Cake. And hot chocolate." Asia looks at the plants curiously. "They sound funny." she says. "Will they take care of them? They are not right, they are scared." she looks to Nat. "Plants are not normally scared." Natasha nods slightly, stepping back and shutting the locker back. "Yes. We have many scientists who will try and help them." Lying? It's Natasha. You do the math. She's more concerned with the implications of what is going on inside that room... and wanting to get the plant girl away from it before she becomes too distressed. Asia isn't good at math so she nods. "Bye bye your are gonna be okay." she believes it. She grins at Natasha and hugs her. "Yes lets go get something to munch on."